rectory gardening volunteer voluntold

Even when it was just little, I couldn’t bring myself to rip up this weird grass, because, well, it just didn’t look like grass, and, what if something really cool? So I let it grow. It still looks like weird grass. It’s now pretty tall, measuring a good couple of feet. A neighbor said, “Hey, that looks like garlic!” I have no idea, but I would like this. In future years, this would mean that the “driveway garden” would be overwhelmed by garlic. I love garlic. We’ll see. I don’t see any spears coming off, no strange seed tops, not yet, anyway. The neighbors have a patch of garlic. Somehow some bulbs must have gotten into their miniature therapy horse poop hill in their back yard. They let me take wheelbarrows of that for my gardening ventures. But, we’ll see. Maybe it’s just grass. But maybe not. Be open to volunteers. It may be just what you want.

Meanwhile, “Brake-Man” below is has his usual complement of flora that has been there for years. He’ll soon disappear, turning into a mountain of green.

The lettuce in the seed boxes on the front steps is struggling, as everything is all dug up pretty continuously by squirrels looking for black walnuts that they buried last year. But maybe some will survive. I should get smart and cover over the tops with a dome of chicken wire that I can sneak a hand under for weeding but which will outsmart a squirrel.

The rose bush – very old now – hasn’t yet put any buds out, but they will soon appear. These will be Flowers for the Immaculate Conception.

The tomatoes are starting to produce:

I planted the tomatoes too early, and some were killed off by the hard frost and the bucket I had over them to protect them, or so I thought. I moved what I thought were dead plants to an unused part of the asparagus patch, hoping beyond hope that they just might come back. I am amazed. They all lived. There are actually five strugglers in this picture below, all relocated way to close to each other, but we’ll see what happens. I was really careless and rough with them when moving them. I guess they thought it was just fine, as they get more sun next to the asparagus patch. This will be an experiment about planting them way too close to each other. I’ll have to get better at weeding, I know.

I am tempted to use insecticide and fungicide this year…. Any advice on that for the tomatoes, and for the spaghetti squarrrsh if they grow? I don’t think anything else will need such things.

The asparagus doesn’t care about any insects or fungus. They just grow like crazy. It’s the moles and voles that can be a problem. Any advice about those critters?

Is this a weed or a volunteer carrot?

Meanwhile… OCTOBER BEANS! These almost died bringing them home. They got white mold on most of the leaves and were totally wilted. I ripped off all the infected leaves and got them good soil and plenty of water. They look much better now. I hope these aren’t poison ivy!

I hope these produce some beans that I can plant next year, and maybe even enough for some soup. You only need six or half dozen for a great soup dish, so big are they. Maybe I’ll have enough to give some to my gardening neighbors. It’s always, always good to pass around the blessings.

The spaghetti squarrrsh from last year are only now on the menu. They have kept very, very well. The seeds are being planted round about. We’ll see what happens to them. I’m experimenting with preparation. Instead of heating up the house with a super-hot stove for 40 minutes, a half or quarter is popped into the microwave for five minutes. I found them to come out al dente, and not all watery and steamy and hard to deal with, with a much better texture with all the flavor. Butter and salt is what I like. Delicious. No squash this year. Enough of that! It’ll all be spaghetti squash.

Meanwhile, I’m still thinking about getting chickens…

MEANWHILE: In another garden, the Lord’s vineyard, there will be total mayhem at the church tonight for the vigil Mass in Spanish. I told everyone to take pictures as it will be obvious to the diocese that we need a bigger church. But, this will be a bit of an exception because of people coming from far and wide. We have four baptisms, eleven confirmations, and four first Holy Communions. Of course, there will also be Confessions before. Hopefully no Last Rites needed! We love the sacraments in this parish, in this garden of souls. :-)